More and more people are being targeted by bullies in vicious and personal hate crime attacks. Now the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced it will treat online abuse in the same way it would deal with abuse on the streets.

A hate crime is an offence motivated by a ‘hostility or prejudice’, including racism, sexism or homophobia.

The CPS successfully prosecuted more than 15,000 hate crime incidents in 2015/16 – the highest number ever.

Now the new rules – which include guidelines on helping disabled and bisexual victims – are meant to encourage more people to come forward and press courts to impose longer sentences, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Read More

In December 2014, Scotland’s Crown Office issued similar prosecution guidance, which states: “If it would be illegal to say it on the street, it is illegal to say it online.”

In Staffordshire, residents have been targeted and have been subject to discriminatory and disgraceful abuse.

Local autism campaigner Kevin Healey quit social media for a time due after being on the sharp end of online abuse.

Now back online, the 42-year-old welcomed the CPS’s guidance, saying: “Online abuse is always there, you cannot get away from it.

“It is possible to ignore and walk away from abuse in the street, but when it is online and on social media it is 24/7 and you cannot escape.

“People are being harassed and bullied constantly and it is very difficult and can have a massive effect, especially on younger people.

“The police were brilliant with me when I reported abuse.But that being said, I think more should be done by the social media giants to aid police in investigations and to protect their users.

“I think the guidance from the CPS is really positive news in dealing with online abuse.”

Stoke-on-Trent North MP Ruth Smeeth

MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, Ruth Smeeth, has received disgusting online abuse from anti-Semitic trolls. She welcomed the new CPS guidance.

“It is not just about public figures facing abuse, it’s a signal to children about bulling and online abuse,” she added. “This important and significant move will help stop our online space becoming something akin to the Wild West.”

The problem of hate speech online is one faced nationally by both public figures and Joe Public.

Labour councillor Seyi Akiwowo received a tirade of racist and gender-based slurs in February 2017. She was called the N-word and ‘a monkey’.

Ms Akiwowo told BBC Radio London: “They’re not just words. They actually echo the behaviour we don’t tolerate in society, so we shouldn’t start thinking it’s OK to say on any platform, on social media and the internet.

“There needs to be a big campaign about proper conduct online and about what you can do as a witness. You wouldn’t be a bystander to a crime in society. If we saw someone being mugged, or being abused, we wouldn’t stand back. We would try and intervene in some way.”

Read More

A third of those convicted for hate crimes in 2015/16 saw their sentence increased because of the hate crime element of the offence – also a record.

However, in the same year, the number of cases being referred by police to prosecutors for a decision fell by almost 10 per cent.

Nik Noone, chief executive of Galop, a charity that campaigns against anti-LGBT violence and hate crime, said its own research suggested many victims did not have confidence in the police to report online hate attacks.

Nik said: “The threshold for prosecuting online hate crime is very high, and the investigative process is often too slow and cumbersome to respond to the fast-moving online world.”